Why EV mandates are necessary

Opinion

Big Tobacco and Big Oil are eerily similar. One knowingly produces a product that slowly but surely kills its consumers. The other knowingly produces a product that surely but not slowly kills the planet.

Both attempted to dodge responsibility by denying the science. And when even the most obtuse individuals could see through the veil of lies, both resorted to well-financed campaigns of deception. Disinformation such as the claim that light cigarettes are safer, or that methane (natural gas) is a transitional fuel or carbon capture will solve all our problems. They fund phony “grassroots” (astroturf) groups to mislead the public and policy makers. And it comes as no surprise that Big Oil uses the same PR firms as Big Tobacco to spread their campaign of deception.

If not for government regulation, Big Tobacco would have carried on business as usual, hooking our youth with Joe Camel cartoons and flavoured cigarettes. There was zero possibility of combatting this evil without advertising bans, mandatory product labelling, age restrictions and — wait for it — hefty taxes.

And Big Oil will carry on business as usual unless regulated by government to do otherwise. In some ways, they’re worse than Big Tobacco, as the fossil fuel industry in Canada — an obscenely profitable industry — has persuaded our gullible politicians that massive public subsidies are needed for carbon capture and the construction of new pipelines, including the idiotic suggestion of building a part-time pipeline to Hudson Bay.

Reducing carbon emissions requires tackling the two biggest emitters of greenhouse gases: transportation and heating. To avert greater disaster, we need rapid decarbonization and electrification of the economy.

Here is where EV mandates come in.

We have thrown away the best tool in the decarbonization toolbox: a consumer carbon tax. It was deliberately poisoned by a well-funded disinformation campaign. The carbon tax and rebate left the great majority of Manitobans better off financially, but you wouldn’t know that from what our politicians falsely claimed. Federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe, Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew and others bought into and amplified the deceptive claims of Big Oil and Gas, so now the consumer carbon tax sits in the trashcan.

That leaves flexible regulations as our next best option. They’re not as efficient as carbon taxes, but can still work to wean us off our fossil fuel addiction. Front and centre among these are EV mandates. North American car manufacturers are a big part of the fossil fuel industry and now that the carbon tax is dead, have set out to murder the EV mandate too.

An EV mandate pushes car manufacturers to meet the sales targets for EVs by fixed timelines or purchase credits from more efficient competitors. Just as Big Tobacco would never reduce sales of cigarettes voluntarily, so too with GM, Ford and Stellantis and their gas-powered vehicles. Instead of bringing products to market that consumers want, they choose — to use Danielle Smith’s new term — malicious noncompliance.

The North American car industry has focused most of their EV production on big, expensive SUVs that only the wealthy can afford (GM’s one relatively low-cost EV, the Bolt, keeps getting removed from the market). By driving down sales, they can claim there’s no EV demand and that “we can’t possibly meet the EV mandates.”

What absolute rubbish.

The world has exposed their lie. Norway (a cold country by the way), has already reached the 100 per cent EV mandate for new car sales. In Sweden (also cold), Finland (cold too), Denmark (not warm) and China, over half of new cars are EVs or PHEVs. B.C. and Quebec are not far behind. In those provinces, EVs reached greater than 20 per cent of new car sales by the early 2020s. And B.C. and Quebec have already built out the necessary EV charging networks. It’s not rocket science.

Chinese manufacturers now produce small, affordable EVs at or below the price of their gas equivalents and Europe is not far behind. The new EVs have insane ranges, run on batteries that will outlive the cars, and BYD has an EV charging system that fills up as fast as a gas car.

All that stands between affordable EVs, lower vehicle operating costs and Canadian consumers is a tariff wall.

If Detroit and Oshawa refuse to comply, others can and will fill the void. We should invite BYD, Hyundai and others to build EV plants in Canada and Ford, Stellantis and GM should partner with their technologically more advanced competitors.

All that eliminating federal EV mandates does now is keep Canadian consumers from enjoying a much cheaper, much cleaner future.

Scott Forbes is an ecologist at the University of Winnipeg. The views expressed are his own.